


Sanctioned Heroics

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [248]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen, Superhero!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2016-04-16
Packaged: 2018-06-02 12:10:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6565579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sparrowsverse asked: Leverage, Sanctioned Superheros</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

Parker barely remembered a life _before_.  Before the accident, before the men in suits came to the door, dark suits somber like they too were in mourning.  

Parker remembers no-one would look at her, after the accident.  Or maybe that was adult!Parker projecting back on the child she was.   Either way, no-one tried to stop the men when they took her by the hand.  She didn’t pack a bag; just put on her sneakers under the dark dress she’d been forced into.  She grabbed Mr Bun-Bun just before they hustled her out the door, down the path, and into the car.

She never came back.

If she couldn’t remember _before_ , she remembered everything else with painful clarity.  High metal walls, men with guns and dark glasses that reflected back to her her pale face.  A grim-faced woman scrubbed her down with soap that made her nose itch, and stuffed her into grey coveralls.

They let her keep Mr Bun-Bun.  Only later did she realize it wasn’t a kindness to a little girl.

The men in black knew all about leverage.

There were others – they had their own rooms, all the better to confine them in, but their rooms all opened onto a central common room.  There was the dark-skinned boy with eyes that glowed like a screen, always muttering to himself as he sought out signals that were blocked and controlled to keep him in line.  To the other side, the boy with hair long enough to hide behind, who looked like every other boy she’d ever met til she saw him throw a tractor tyre across the room.

There were other rooms, other clusters; she saw them sometimes, older kids, then, as she got older herself, younger kids, all in the same grey coveralls, the same twitchy expressions.

When she was twelve, she got a new tutor.  “Call me Mr Archie,” he said, leaning forward slightly over his cane to look at her.

She liked Mr Archie’s lessons.  He snuck her treats, and more than once she heard Mr Archie arguing with the other tutors.  She couldn’t hear the words, but she knew he was arguing for her.

When she was thirteen, she and the boys were moved to a new cluster.  Parker resisted the urge to grab their hands, clutched Mr Bun-Bun tighter instead, relaxing only slightly when her boys edged in closer to her on either side.

Mr Archie strode in, followed by two of the students from the older classes.  “Project time.  You are to work as a team.  Here is your objective.”  He handed an envelope to the older boy and strode out.

Hardison shivered as the door closed.  “They’ve…they’ve turned off the wifi blocker,” he gasped, wincing as a thousand electrical signals raced across his brain.

Eliot glanced at him, then walked over to the wall.  “This isn’t reinforced,” he said, pressing a finger into the concrete hard enough to leave a hole.

Parker looked, then Looked like Mr Archie had taught her.  “Quad’s on the other side of that wall, and” she Looked the other way.  “Only two guards.”

“CCTV is closed loop, not monitored,” Hardison added.

The older girl sashayed over to the door, going onto her tiptoes to peek through the portal.  “They’re not wearing psi-blockers either?” she noted in amazement.

“Jam everything,” the older boy said, eyes on the note in the envelope.

“Jammed,” Hardison said after a moment.  “Who are you?”

“I’m Nate.”  He glanced up at their expectant pause.  “I…let’s just say I see patterns.”  He turned to the girl by the door.  “Soph, think you can get them to open the door and go to sleep?”

She smiled, all teeth.  “Easy. Why?”

Nate turned around the note.  Parker recognized Mr Archie’s looping handwriting.  One word.

 _Escape_.

 


	2. Interruptions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sparrowsverse Asked: Leverage/Avengers. 021. (Hell's Heroes, by empires)

itunes roulette gives 21 as “Hell’s Heroes” by empires (YAAASS)  Maybe possibly a continuation of[this](http://akireyta.tumblr.com/post/142536926633/leverage-sanctioned-superheros)?

They’re eating lunch, all squashed into the booth at the back of the diner, when the trouble starts.  Nate doesn’t even look up, just keeps on mechanically shoving salad into his mouth, right up until the window shatters.

He puts down his fork with a sigh.

“It seems,” Sophie said slowly as Nate began to rub his temple, “that they are having trouble with this one.”

Outside there was a scream and a dopplered hum of some kind of energy weapon.  Hardison gasped, gripping the table.  “Shit, I felt that,” he hissed, puffing until he got the sensation of electroshock back under control.  He tilted his head up as new signals hit his brain.  “Oh hey, helicarrier inbound.”

Nate stood up.  “That’s our cue.”

The few other patrons of the diner were all huddled behind the counter.  Nate threw some cash at them as they hurried past.  One of them called out, but Nate was already stepping through the shattered remains of the door.

The rest followed.  After all this time, all they had done, they’d follow Nate anywhere.

He walked like he was king of the world, stopping them at points, letting the pattern of the battle play around them but never touch them.

But when they stopped near the head of the alleyway, Eliot knew something was off.  “What?” he snapped.

It was Sophie who replied.  “There’s kids in there.”  Parker nodded, pointing through the wall, through wiring and rebar and brick, to where _life_  pulsed against her senses.

Nate closed his eyes.  “They’re trapped,” he added.

“Can we get to them?” Eliot asked.

Nate turned his head.  “Not without going through… _that_.”  A crash fifty yards away threw up a spray of concrete.  In the middle were flashes of red, the hum of repulsors.

There was a silent conference, the five of them looking between each other.  “We promised,” Parker said.

“They’re kids,” Eliot said.

“Who else,” Hardison said.

Nate’s smile uncurled slowly.  “Sophie,” he said slowly.  “Get their attention.”


End file.
